


A cup of Tea

by foxymandy3100



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Jon gets protective of Martin, Jon's POV, Martin works weekends at a coffee shop, coffee shop au kinda, set in S1, tim is a good guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27226498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxymandy3100/pseuds/foxymandy3100
Summary: Jon finds out that Martin works part-time in a coffee shop and is in trouble because of him.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 6
Kudos: 128





	A cup of Tea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celosiaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celosiaa/gifts).



His leg is bouncing with nerves. 

Sasha keeps pinning him down with worried glances and Tim jokingly asks, “where the fire,  marto ?” but martin doesn’t answer  either of them , he just keeps looking at the clock.

He  hasn’t packed up yet, the last time he packed before five o’clock Jon was not very happy about it and he made his displeasure well known. Martin ha s n’t done it  sinc e. That might be the onl y good thing about him, in  J on’s eyes, at least once he was yelled at once for his  incompetence, he learned from the mistake... too bad there was a million ways for martin to be  incompetent . 

So instead, Jon watched Martin shift about his station and glance again at the clock. The moment it turned to five he was up and dashing about his desk like a man possessed to stuff his belongings into his bag. 

“Martin”, Jon stopped him in his tracks. “I want the follow up from  Mr. Birch’s case on my desk  Monday ”. 

Jon didn’t normally assign weekend  work, but Martin had been  inching his way through it for days  and it needed to be done quickly . Hopefully this extra time would be what he needed. Jon didn’t miss the displeased look Tim shot him or the pitying half - grin Sasha offered Martin in response.  Good lord it’s like he kicked a puppy or something. 

Martin shuffled toward the coat rack, nearly dropping his bag where he was shoving in the file papers, wrinkling them and further souring Jon’s mood. He snagged his coat from the wrack and yelped when it nearly fell on him. He caught it and set it upright then gave a quick half wave over his shoulder and bolted toward the door. 

Jon barely got time to shout after him “no running in the archives!” before Martin was gone. 

Jon grumbled under his breath, not sure why he bothered some days. Sasha and Tim were packing up  their own belongings in a far calmer way than Martin’s desperate clumsy bumbling. 

Tim approached Jon with  an amiable grin and draped an arm, casually, over his shoulder. 

“Hey boss, can we talk?” 

Jon has a feeling he knew what it would be about and sighed heavily, shrugging  Tim's arm off his shoulder only for the man to readjust with a smirk

“If we must” 

Tim  led him back around to his office and kicked the door shut with his heel. 

“What do you want,  Tim ?” 

Jon groaned, sinking into his desk chair and motioning to one of the other chairs across the desk for Tim to take a seat. 

Tim, ever the office’s lead bisexual (and thus did not know how to properly use a chair) , snagged the chair and spun it backwards to flop into the seat . H is legs parted around the back  as he leaned it forward until the t op of the chair rested against the desk. Jon felt a headache blossoming behind his eyes already. He really needed some coffee. 

“you don’t have to be so hard on him,  y’know . He's not as bad as you make him out to be” 

Jon knew this was coming, he had seen Tim invite Martin out for drinks before and knew the man had grown soft on the big oaf already. 

“I’m not being hard on him. He’s had all week to finish the follow up on that case and it’s still not done. That's plenty of time. If he weren’t busy running off on dates every  weekend, I'm sure he wouldn’t be so tired and could get his work done in a timely fashion. ” 

“That’s a big case, Jon. Normally you would put both Sasha and Me on a case that  size, and it would take us the whole week. You can’t expect him to do the work of two people just because you don’t like him. Which I don’t understand, by the way, Martin is great. I know he let a dog in  but if you would just give him a chance-- ” 

Jon cut Tim off with a hand lifted. 

“Thank you  Mr. Stoker, I will keep your recommendations in mind for the future. If that’s all you needed you are excused. I will see you on Monday” 

Tim shifted in the seat. 

“Don’t do that. ”

“Do what?” Jon sighed. 

“ That thing where you cut people out because they know you too well for comfort. You don’t  want to talk about this, fine. Say so, but don’t write me off like it’s nothing . Martin has a lot on his plate that you don’t know about.  **_ Try _ ** to understand. And for the record maybe  you should ask him what he does on the weekends . It's sure not going on dates. ” 

Tim gets up, smile gone, and leaves the room without bothering to put the chair back as it was. Jon watche s him leave and sighs heavily, feeling like a fool for taking his frustrations out on Tim. He stood up and headed to the breakroom, passing by the , now thankfully, empty bullpen on his way. 

He scaled the counter and scoured the cabinets for any sign of coffee only to find their only tin empty. He found himself cursing  Martin again, the man normally replenished the tea and coffee supply, before he paused. That wasn’t part of Martin’s job description. It was something he did out of kindness. Jon was taking advantage of that more often than he knew. He sig hed heavily and dropped off the counter onto the floor and rubbed at his temples. He needed coffee badly. 

He could go to buy more or grab a cup from a café nearby, either way he would be leaving the archives. He snatched up his coat with a grumble of displeasure and headed up the stairs onto the main floor of the institute and ne arly hissed at the light. He found his eyes far more sensitive to daylight since moving to work at the archives and he despised it. It was another convenient excuse,  tha t helped him get more work done  but likely made his  “condition i.e. workaholism” worse. 

Jon passed by Rosie’s desk, returning her greeting with one of his own. He rather liked Rosie she was a very cheerful and friendly woman, always smiling and offering to help him however she could. Unbidden, an image of Mar tin smiling and bringing Jon tea flashed across his mind and he stopped in his tracks. He didn’t want to think about Martin and certainly not the way he thought of Rosie but why not? They were very similar in personality yet while he adored Rosie’s  company, he spurned Martin’s and he simply could not understand why. 

Maybe the whole reason he didn’t like Martin did boil down to the canine debacle on his first day, after all, first impressions are very important.  He looked up from his thoughts, he was quite close to the convenience store where he could purchase his  coffee ingredients and return to archives to make  it, but he was aching for his cup now so when he noticed a café across the  street, he barely stopped himself from jogging to it. 

The first thing he noticed upon entering  the café  was  the  all-encompassing silence in the room, all eyes seemed to be trained on the front desk. The second thing he noticed was shouting from a back room. Some poor sop was being torn into by their boss for running late constantly and the room out side was full of people listening in to the drama unfolding. He couldn’t blame  them; human nature was made of  curiosity, but he felt  awful for the walk of the shame the poor employee would have to make after they were done being gutted by their manager. 

He felt a pang of sympathy, he had been given some poor performance reviews by Elias since becoming head  archivist, but it was nothing like the shouting match happening in the back room. Whoever the manager was he was well and truly peeved. He heard a meek voice trying to stand up for themsel ves for only a moment before the words were cut off with more yelling. He, along with the others in the café bore witness to the flinch of the other workers at the counters. 

“maybe you don’t want this Job after all!” 

Jon tensed, he hoped he wasn’t about to hear some poor soul getting sacked. 

“No! Please! I do! I really want to work her e . Please just give me another chance, I won’t be late anymore. I swear!” 

Jon could swear that he knew that muffled voice, he hadn’t heard it sound so desperate  before, but he could swear he knew it. Who was back there? 

There was silence for a moment followed by a gruff sigh and a command to “get to work” and the back door opened. An average siz ed male in a red shirt and apron  stormed out to go work on the drive-thru window followed quickly by a large and hunched over male that Jon recognized. 

“Martin?” 

Martin’s head lifted at his wet eyes landed on Jon. His face burned dark red and he lowered his gaze right  away but a smile rested on his lips even as he trembled . He didn’t speak, simply mov ed aside to pick up an order and take it out and Jon felt as if his heart had collapsed into itself like a  star turning into a black hole. Martin might not be the most competent person, but he didn’t deserve to be yelled at and torn down the way he had just been. 

He felt indignancy building up inside of him. The man said that the issue was that Martin was late. 

“Excuse me. You there, sir!” 

He approached the counter, waving down the manager who had been yelling at Martin. He could see Martin’s shoulders tense up from the corner of his eyes and it hurt him to think that the other expected the worst just because he was there.  It also hurt that Jon knew he deserved that distrust. 

“From one boss to another, yelling at your employees is not the way to get their respect and it certainly isn’t  conducive to the type of relaxing environment that a café is meant to exude. Maybe next time you should trying  _ talking _ instead of shouting. I'm sure your customers would greatly appreciate  it, as would your employees.” 

Jon  s mile d pleasantly and put a $20 into the tip cup before turning to Martin. 

“Don’t worry about the case file I assigned you. I’ll see you at work on Monday. Oh yes, and next Friday you can leave at 4:50. If I had known you had a second  job, I wouldn’t have been so hard on you about packing up early. ” 

He ensures the manager can hear the comments, so he gets a broader picture of the situation before turning around and heading for the door. Jon is a hypocrite. How many times has he yelled at Martin before, torn him down and made him feel like  less. Would martin have been used to being treated that way if not for him? He feels like such a heel. That wet eyed smile that martin  gave others, he’d seen before in the archives. There was no difference in what he had done and what this man had done. They both hurt Martin. Jon can’t recall a time he’s ever felt so ashamed of himself. 

“Jon, wait . ” 

Jon halts in the doorway as Martin busies himself around the kitchen for a moment. He comes out from behind the counter and offers him a steaming cup. 

“You came for a drink, right?” 

Jon smiled a little and took the cup, reaching for his wallet. Martin shook his head. 

“My treat. Thank you” 

The wetness to his eyes was gone and he flashed a genuine smile at him before turning back to go behind the counter and get to work. Jon stood there, silent and unmoving before he felt a grin bloom on his own face. He stepped outside and sipped on his drink. 

Tea. Well damn. 

It may not have been the coffee he set out  for, but Jon couldn’t help but feel this was the best  cuppa that Martin had ever made. 

He would have to tell him as much on Monday. 

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's cannon that Jon hates coffee but coffee is stronger than tea caffeine wise and sometimes you give up taste for something strong. this is just one of those times.


End file.
